All Forum Posts by: Daniel Fitzroy

I can't believe there weren't any folks on here that tried to answer this question. such a good one and I looked for this post because i was wondering the same thing! Just basic tips for if you moved to a new location or if you're like me and still dont know much about the market you've lived in forever haha. Did you start investing yet? this post was a year old and you said you were hoping to start in six months... goodluck! 

@Christopher Vincent Thank you for sharing how you're being successful its very inspiring. I like the idea of networking with people and I plan on learning as much as I can on here first and if i need to perhaps finding a coach. I want to keep it so simple that even I can understand it. Im studying all the basics as often as I can and annylizing a random deal off zillow now just to practice. You guys on here are incredibly helpful!

@Matt McConkey Matt this seams like a great way to go about determining rent price. Very helpfull thanks for sharing your methods/ideas! 

@Ethan Perry

That's good to hear man thanks for sharing! Congrats on your house hack hope it goes smoothly. You will be able to learn how to manage/screen tenants and maintain the property all while lowering your living costs  its a win win!

@Bill F.

That's great information thank you so much! My truck is being pd off soon i started with owing 21.500 on the loan 2.5 years ago and I'm down to about 4.5k. I'm paying 500 a month for that. it will be worth about 15k resale value which perhaps I could somehow use to my advantage for acquiring financing or maybe sell it worse case scenario? I currently have 3.2k in my investment account/savings account. My credits really good somewhere around 741 or so last time i checked and I've never had missed payments or the like. no other debt I just pd down my 1k I had on a credit card. I'm moving my Family into an apartment soon and paying $1200 for it. Anyway i want to move us into a duplex in a year so we will be able to rent hack and lower our cost of living. I will take your advise of having 10k saved up for sure!

One thing I'm having a hard time understanding though is how do investors find money to put into a dedicated rental property. I mean one that is not their current primary residence? One they plan on buying after they have an FHA loan on their primary duplex. I fully understand using an FHA loan for primary residence and I think its great/that's my plan.but I'm trying to understand how I would then go purchase my first duplex to renovate/rent out both side of. This would be strictly business not personal I'de want an LLC for it and I'd manage it myself. Would a bank need some sort of investment or perhaps business loan? Perhaps find an owner financed home? Or partner with someone? I'm excited to get the ball rolling as soon as I can. If my only option for financing that home is to save up 10k that's what ill do for sure. This is a great post with lots of tips greatly appreciated!

@Joseph Cacciapaglia 

Wow thats great to hear! Thanks for sharing your start. I read a post from another investor on here that was about three years old stating that he was able to purchase two duplex's in Dutchess county New York for around 150k. They needed about 3-5k to get them fixed up and ready to rent. When I search zillow i can occasionally find them listed at full retail for closer to 200k i think. I wonder how other investors are even finding their deals in this area perhaps they're direct mail marketing idk but its fascinating. Thanks for your advise i think increasing my pay is a great idea and I agree! I am actually looking into the steps needed to obtain a real estate salesperson license (realtors license i mean) and maybe I can boost my income there on the side. I'm looking to provide 25k in passive income through investing over time so the sooner I begin investing the better but i need to be more knowledgeable first. Hence why I'm on here now. Anyway how much work did your first duplex need if you don't mind me asking and did you find good tenants?

Hi BP, I'm learning as much as I can every single day and soaking up knowledge on here in the forums and trying to contribute any way I can. I'm looking to invest in my first buy and hold rental duplex in about a year after i create my business plan and figure out all the little systems. I'll be investing in Dutchess County New York and looking for help by learning from all the amazing folks on here! In the mean time I was wondering if anyone on here has started investing with a simple 30k per year day job and had success!? Was hoping to hear how you guys got started and if you're still as excited about it as I am? please share how you did it! Did you come up with a business plan and begin seeking out the help of mentors in your area or perhaps you did it all on your own? lets hear how you got started!

@Larry 

@Larry Zucker Great advise, thanks I like that even better. I like keeping things as simple as possible and this seems like a fare method thats super so simple even I can understand it.

Do you have to upgrade and pay to use Rentometer? Just curious. I think after the first few inputs you might, for those of you who are thinking of using it as I am. I remember listening to a podcast where David Greene suggested using it and i practiced using it on a mock property buy/hold evaluation and it seamed pretty neat. I liked it. Perhaps if you were new and trying to get a rough idea it could work. I heard on a podcast this morning that if your property sits too long you may be charging too much rent for your area so that's something to keep in mind. You could use this data to make help shape future rent to some degree. Also if you tracked that data, rent listing vs time it took to get it rented and what price it was listed this may be beneficial to your business. There are interesting things that happen when one house that looks like another is able to command a higher rent than another similar one even within your own properties. So tracking it is a good idea in my opinion. ( take my advise with a grain of salt as I haven't invested/managed properties yet.)

Wow, this is really good food for thought. Great question and you guys that replied have some really great systems in place. Thanks for sharing your methods! I like the idea of documenting upgrades and having it set up that the tenants shouldn't alter the place without permission. I'm pretty laid back myself so I probably wouldn't have a problem with it but having them pay for it does two things. 1 obviously keeps us from spending unnecessary money on questionable upgrades and. 2. lets the tenant know not to expect future upgrades handed to them for free if they decide to get used to it. I like this post, very helpful! I would definitely work with the tenant in this situation too but take my opinion with a grain of salt i haven't invested/managed tenents yet, still learning.